Custom Home Building Process In Northeast Ohio

What is the custom home building process in Cleveland Ohio? This is the 1st part of a three video series where Tony Kucia with Cleveland Custom Builders explains the custom home building process in detail.

Cleveland Custom Builders Says Building Is Like A Roller Coaster

So, you want to build a new custom home in Northeast Ohio—congratulations! But let’s be honest, it can be a little intimidating. Building a home from the ground up can feel a lot like riding a roller coaster for the first time. It looks exciting and fun, but there’s also that nervous anticipation as you climb the first big hill—clink, clink, clink—and then suddenly, you’re soaring, twisting, and turning through the process.

Like that roller coaster ride, the custom home building journey comes with ups and downs. But once it’s over, most homeowners look back and realize it was one of the most rewarding experiences of their lives. At Cleveland Custom Builders, we aim to make your ride so smooth and enjoyable that you’d happily do it again.

Who is Cleveland Custom Builders and Tony Kucia

For over 27 years, I’ve dedicated my career to helping people in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio turn their dream homes into reality. My name is Tony Kucia, and my background includes working for a national production builder in three different states, where I served as a mentor, project manager, and area manager. Those experiences taught me the importance of structure, organization, and people-centered service in the home building process.

Afterward, I helped launch Blossom Homes in 2005, developing the concept, working with architects, and building a trusted network of lenders and land experts. While the company closed in 2019, the experience shaped who I am as a builder today—driven by passion, resilience, and a commitment to helping clients enjoy the process of designing and building their own homes in Northeast Ohio.

Cleveland Custom Builders and Tony Kucia Have a No B.S. Philosophy

At Cleveland Custom Builders, I take a no B.S. approach to home building. I tell it like it is. Honesty, integrity, and doing the right thing are non-negotiable values in my business. Custom home building means working with all kinds of people—clients, trades, suppliers, lenders, and real estate agents—and my focus is always on surrounding myself with the best professionals in the industry.

The reason is simple: the best have experienced the worst. In this business, anything can happen. What separates great builders from the rest is how they learn from challenges and continuously improve.

I come from a big family—one of seven boys—and as a middle child, I learned early on to stand up, speak out, and work hard. My father always told me, “Do the right thing, no matter what.” That advice guides everything I do, from managing a project to helping a family make one of the most important financial decisions of their life.

The 5 Ps, The 5 W’s & The H of The Custom Home Building Process

My philosophy as a custom home builder in Northeast Ohio revolves around two key frameworks:

• The 5 Ps: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
• The 5 W’s and H: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How

These principles shape everything I do—from planning your project to walking you through the final touches. My wife, Markie, and I have five kids, and even though life gets crazy, I try to pass these same lessons on to them: tell the truth, do the right thing, and plan ahead.

Like riding a roller coaster, building a home brings moments of fear and excitement. But when guided properly, it’s a thrilling and fulfilling experience.

Many homeowners reach this point after outgrowing their current home or deciding to upgrade their lifestyle. Whether remodeling or starting fresh, the first step is understanding your priorities—what makes sense for your personal life and your finances. After all, your home is one of your largest and most meaningful investments.

Where Does The Custom Home Building Process Start?

The custom home building process begins with understanding the client’s wants and needs. Every family is unique, and at Cleveland Custom Builders, we prioritize listening to what matters most to you first.

Next, we work together to tier your wants—a system that organizes design features and finishes into levels of importance:

• Tier One Wants: Must-haves right after your essential needs.
• Tier Two Wants: Nice-to-haves that elevate the home’s comfort or aesthetics.
• Tier Three Wants: Dream items—the “if I won the lottery” list.

This simple framework ensures your custom home design makes financial sense while achieving your personal goals. It also helps us create a clear plan that balances design, function, and budget.

By the end of this stage, you’ll have a complete understanding of what’s possible and what each feature will cost—turning your dream home into a realistic, well-organized plan.

What To Do Before You Buy A Piece Of Property To Build A Custom Home On?

Before purchasing land for your custom home in Northeast Ohio, talk to your builder. I always ask clients to include me in the process early so I can research the property, confirm its buildability, and ensure it aligns with your home design goals.

Not all lots are created equal. For example, I do a lot of work in Cleveland, where lots may have been developed multiple times. Each property can come with hidden challenges—old foundations, buried debris, or outdated utilities. That’s why we do a pre-dig and site investigation, reviewing county records, fire marshal reports, and water and sewer maps to uncover potential issues before breaking ground.

If you’re building in the countryside, you’ll face a different set of factors—like access to utilities, wells, septic systems, or long driveways. I’ve built homes as far as half a mile off the main road, which requires detailed planning for everything from grading to power connections.

By carefully assessing your land and integrating your needs, wants, and budget, we create a home design that fits both the lot and your lifestyle.

So, when you’re ready to build your custom home in Northeast Ohio, remember—success starts with a builder who plans ahead, tells it straight, and treats your home as if it were their own.

What Are The Costs To Start The Custom Home Building Process With Cleveland Custom Builders?

Typically, I try to get at least a $5,000 deposit, no matter what I’m doing, because it takes a lot of time and effort to put forth this work to determine how this will all make sense if we build you a custom home. Ultimately, I’ve had clients that didn’t put the best foot forward, trying to work with the builder upfront myself, and who are willing to meet and review the lot. So you don’t make a poor decision on a lot purchase because that’s no good. If you make a lousy lot decision, now you’re sitting on a piece of land and you can’t build your dream home.

How deflating is that?

Not All Land Deals Are Good Deals When Building Custom Homes

I’ve been there with custom home clients that came to me too late. I’ve been there with people crying a couple of times because they had already owned the dirt. I mean the lot; excuse me, dirt is custom home lingo builder’s use, and buying a lot your dream home won’t fit on sucks.

So again, I’m going to go back to proper planning, prevents poor performance during the custom home building process. Well, unaware clients wanting to build a custom home didn’t know. They didn’t know. They didn’t plan out their custom home building process because they didn’t understand they’re excited. The custom building clients thought it was a great deal to buy that land. Water service wasn’t their water services across the street. You have to bore the road. You have to cut open the road because they don’t allow you to bore the road. Then you have to repatch the road. It could be $15,000 by the time it’s all said and done. Oh, by the way, we ran new sewers down the road because that lot was vacant. We never put a stub for your sewer. So now we’ve got to cut the road for a sewer stub. $15,000 later, you have sewer to the house, but it’s another unforeseen budget hit. You thought the land you purchased was a great deal on the lot, but no water, no sewer.

That land purchase wasn’t a great deal because now you’re $30,000 more in the hole. A few unexpected expenses now take away from your dream home budget, where you have all these needs and wants. And now you’re tier two, and tier three wants are gone because of unexpected water and sewer connections, which are of no value to you. But of course, you need them to live in your new custom home. So I try to help you avoid these land buying mistakes, and boy, I’m passionate about what I do. You probably can tell that I care for potential and existing home building clients by the way I’m talking. When I say care, I care about the budget because I don’t like surprises any more than you do. No one likes surprises.

Two Words That Can Cost Time & Money During The Custom Home Building Process

Let’s talk about other ways you can cost yourself time and money with two words. Those two words in custom home building are “Change Orders.”

Change orders cost a custom builder so much. You and the home builder do so much planning upfront. We design the specs for your custom home. We put so much time into the pre-development stage before we go to contract. And that’s why an initial building deposit is essential because you and the builder spend so much time putting your new custom home together. After all, it’s for you to have an enjoyable custom build. Your home building process should be like a roller coaster ride. Building your new custom home should be very enjoyable and fun. Building a new home is a little scary, but it should be so much fun that you want to do it again.

Don’t be a client that didn’t go through properly planning your custom home out. Not asking all the questions or having a builder to ask those questions to absorb that information and make sense in the building environment. If you don’t properly plan, you won’t want to ride the roller coaster again because a poorly planned building process was a nightmare.

And so we want to make sure we take the time to do all that. So you would, you will enjoy the process. But my sidebar is my own home. I built 800 feet off the road, and I had built just not far from North Royalton. I built another house about a thousand feet off the road and a certain utility company allowed me to put a transformer, and well, I just gave it away. And ultimately, it was covered by their costs. I was expecting that. So my expectations were probably poor planning is that I would be able to absorb that similar costs. Well, the company had ended for synergy. It ended that. And what sucks is I had to come up with approximately $5,200. And so that eight out of my tier two wants and part of tier one, I should say, so I make mistakes.

The Custom Home Building Process Is Like Eating An Elephant

Also, I’m human. We all make mistakes. We can learn from them and try to ensure we get as much information upfront to properly account for those potential issues before going into the build process. So once you get your construction loan, we’ll touch on that in a second. You can have things accounted for, so you don’t have to absorb those unnecessary costs and remove some of your wants. So then we get into the construction process, and man, it’s a, it’s a great process. The home building process is like eating an elephant. It’s how do I, where do I start, what do I do. Well, the answer to that is you take one bite at a time. So I try to break it down the home building process to make one bite at a time. Once you can take a bite at a time and can chew it you better understand.

So, you have your pre-construction meeting, and we meet, we’re getting ready to start. We’ve gone through the custom building process of designing the plan, putting the budget together, and putting together a correct set of building specifications, thinking of your needs and wants. We then begin the building process. We’ve gone through proper planning, we’ve got the bank financing in place, we’ve got permits and we’re getting ready to put a shovel in the ground.

Before Digging During Your Custom Home Building Process

Again, I try to re-huddle with my custom building clients, we go through our plan, and we say, okay, here’s what we’re doing. We’re getting our custom home build started. Let’s roll.

By the way, now, you have to have some of your selections done, finalized a hundred percent. I can tell you this, and I may repeat myself, once the home building starts, the process goes, so I need to have all your exterior choices selected a hundred percent in concrete. You’re going to be asked to sign off on those selections because we’re going to order up. Why is that? Lead times, which are greater than ever with this whole COVID stuff. I’ve used to be able to get certain things, windows and doors, and trusses. And approximately four weeks, those days are gone. We’re up to eight to 10 to 12 weeks in some of those items.

The reason why I mentioned timeframes, if I’m going to go back to the construction loan, the loan gives us a certain amount of time to build a house. So when you sign papers on your construction loan, they’re going to want the house done in eight, 10, or 12 months.

Can you imagine if you don’t have things selected? You go through the custom building process, not properly planning things out. Not getting specific directions from your builder on how long it might take to build your house. It could go up to two years if you miss all those deadlines and don’t select things on time. So the custom home client and the builder have to work together to understand the home building timeline so we can move forward correctly in ordering things to get them on time.

Once we start, we will want to have your exterior selections made. Windows, doors, siding, roofing, your coil, and gutters because you don’t want delays. You don’t want to select those items individually because you want them all to blend. So that’s why you need to put exterior selections together and select them at the same time. Proper planning of the exterior choices is going to provide a better experience. Again, proper planning prevents poor performance. If you plan things out and you’d select all those things at the same time, and you put them all together, you’re going to have a beautiful looking home.

So if you’re ready to get started planning out your custom built home with Cleveland Custom Builders our agents are here to help, message us, call or text today at (440) 628-1321 .